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The Chateau Marmont is a hotel located at 8221 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. The hotel was designed by architects Arnold A. Weitzman and William Douglas Lee and completed in 1929. It was modeled loosely after the Château d'Amboise, a royal retreat in France's Loire Valley. The hotel is known as both a long- and short-term residence for celebrities – historically "populated by people either on their way up or on their way down" – as well as a home for New Yorkers in Hollywood. The hotel has 63 rooms, suites, cottages, and bungalows. In 2020, the hotel announced plans to become a members-only hotel. These plans were withdrawn in 2022. History Design and construction In 1926, Fred Horowitz, a prominent Los Angeles attorney, chose the site at Marmont Lane and Sunset Boulevard to construct an apartment building. Horowitz had recently traveled to Europe for inspiration and returned to California with photos of a Gothic Chateau (Chateau d'Amboise where Leonardo da Vinci is buried) located along the Loire River. In 1927, Horowitz commissioned his brother-in-law, European-trained architect Arnold A. Weitzman, to design the seven-story, L-shaped building based on his photos from France. When deciding upon a name for the building, Chateau Sunset and Chateau Hollywood were rejected in favor of Chateau Marmont, after the small street running across the front of the property. On February 1, 1929, Chateau Marmont opened its doors to the public as the newest residence of Hollywood. Local newspapers described the Chateau as "Los Angeles's newest, finest and most exclusive apartment house […] superbly situated, close enough to active businesses to be accessible and far enough away to ensure quiet and privacy." For the inaugural reception, over 300 people passed through the site, including local press. Conversion to hotel Due to the high rents and inability to keep tenants for long-term commitments during the Great Depression, Horowitz sold the apartment building in 1931 to Albert E. Smith, co-founder of Vitagraph Studios, for $750,000 in cash (equivalent to $15,030,000 in 2023). Smith converted the building into a hotel, an investment which benefitted from the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The apartments became suites with kitchens and living rooms. The property was also refurbished with antiques from Depression-era estate sales. During the 1930s, the hotel was managed by former silent film actress Ann Little. During World War II, the hotel served as an air-raid shelter for residents in the surrounding area. From about 1942 to 1963 the Chateau was owned by Erwin Brettauer, a German banker who had funded films in Weimar Germany, and was noted for allowing Black guests, breaking the long-standing color line in Hollywood and Beverly Hills hotels. Designed and constructed to be earthquake-proof, Chateau Marmont survived major earthquakes in 1933, 1952, 1971, 1987, and 1994 without sustaining any major structural damage. Nine Spanish cottages, as well as a swimming pool, were built next to the hotel in the 1930s and were acquired by the hotel in the 1940s. Craig Ellwood designed two of the four bungalows in 1956, after he completed Case Study Houses. Acquisition by Sarlot-Kantarjian Business was good for the hotel, although by the 1960s, the building was in disrepair, and the owners attempted to sell it multiple times. News articles about the hotel from the 1960s and 1970s described it as an "elderly castle", a "dowdy hotel", "rundown", and "shabby-genteel". After sitting on the market for two years, the hotel was sold in 1975 to Raymond R. Sarlot and Karl Kantarjian of Sarlot-Kantarjian, a real estate development firm, for $1.1 million. Sarlot-Kantarjian planned to expand the hotel with a new wing. They repaired and upgraded many elements of the hotel, but tried to stay true to the hotel's character and history. In 1976, after their acquisition and improvements began, the Chateau was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. In The New York Times, writer Quentin Crisp praised the Chateau's "avoiding undue modernization and stayed deliberately in the romantic past." Restoration and operation under Balazs The hotel was acquired in 1990 by André Balazs. Balazs needed to modernize the hotel while also preserving Chateau Marmont's character. For the restoration, Balazs strove to create the illusion that the hotel had been untouched, notwithstanding renovations. The entire facility was re-carpeted, repainted, and the public spaces were upgraded. In order to preserve the privacy of the hotel and bungalows, higher fences plus coverings were used to discourage the public from looking into the grounds. On July 28, 2020, the Chateau Marmont announced plans to convert to a members-only hotel, although at least one restaurant would remain open to the public. On September 16, 2020, The Hollywood Reporter published a report involving accounts from more than thirty former hotel employees that accused the hotel's management and Balazs of fomenting racial discrimination and sexual harassment practices at the hotel; they also accused Balazs of neglecting to provide them with adequate health insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic and suspected the hotel's members-only conversion as an attempt to prevent unionization among the hotel's employees. Despite the denial of the allegations by the hotel management and Balazs, multiple employment discrimination lawsuits were filed against the hotel, with the hotel facing picketing from labor union UNITE HERE and boycotts from numerous celebrities; in support of the boycott, a night shoot at the hotel for Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos was canceled just hours before the intended start of production. On May 1, 2024, paramedics were called to the hotel when Britney Spears and her boyfriend allegedly got into a domestic dispute. Spears was seen leaving the hotel wearing just her underwear and covering herself with a blanket as she walked out barefoot. Spears did not seek medical assistance despite the alleged incident. Dining The hotel restaurant terrace features market-fresh California cuisine from chef Dean Yasharian. The restaurant Bar Marmont closed in 2017. In July 2018, Chateau Hanare, a new restaurant, opened in a former residential building on the eastern edge of the property. Balazs had spent five years courting the restaurateur, Reika Alexander of New York City's EN Japanese Brasserie. In popular culture Throughout the years, Chateau Marmont has gained recognition. Anthony Bourdain, Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Death Grips, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Anthony Kiedis, Annie Leibovitz, Courtney Love, Lana Del Rey, Jay McInerney, Helmut Newton, Dorothy Parker, Nicholas Ray, Terry Richardson, Hunter S. Thompson, and Bruce Weber, among others, have produced work at the hotel. Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor married the band's hairdresser Tracey Wilson at the hotel in 1982. On film Director Sofia Coppola shot her film Somewhere at .... Discover the Raymond Sarlot Fred E Basten popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Raymond Sarlot Fred E Basten books.